News Archives for February 2013

Most times when a supercomputer is in the news, it's for purepower. However, Italy's top supercomputer, the "Eurora," is in the news for a different achievement altogether. The Eurora has set a new world record for data center energy efficiency, with 3,150 megaflops per watt of sustained performance. That efficiency is a full 26% higher than the former system atop the Green500 list of the world's most efficient supercomputers. Video card giant NVIDIA is rather proud of Eurora's achievement, as the supercomputer uses 128 NVIDIA K20 Tesla accelerators combined with Eurotech's Aurora Hot Water Cooling technology. Eurotech's tech uses direct hot water cooling on all electronics and electrical components in order to keep temperatures in line.

Pairing the Tesla K20 accelerators with the Aurora Hot Water Cooling technology allows for a more efficient and compact build than air-cooled configurations. Energy bills could be reduced by as much as 50% and lower cost of ownership between 30 and 50% with the combination. NVIDIA estimates CO2 emissions can be dropped by as much as 1,500 tons compared to convential CPU-based systems. It can also eliminate the need for air conditioning, since the "thermal energy the system produces can be used to heat buildings, drive adsorption chillers for air conditioning or generate tri-generation, the combined production of electricity, heating and cooling."

The current Eurora supercomputer is a prototype system built for Cineca in Bologna, Italy, to "provide a sustainable, high-quality infrastructure" for the most demanding high-performance computing users. It'll be used to study "all types of physical and biological systems," and thanks to the energy efficiency record, power consumption and cost won't be an issue.

In the roundup today is a review of the Reveen Arcziel 12 CPU cooler that features six 6mm heat pipes and a 120mm PWM fan to keep your processor cooled. Neoseeker has just posted a review of the CM Storm QuickFire TK mechanical keyboard sporting Cherry MX Blue key switches, but you can also get red and brown versions. We also have a review article on the Intel 525 series solid state drives.

Ever since the first computers were used, scientists have been trying to model the world around them, to improve their understanding of it. With computers becoming ever more powerful, these simulations are becoming for complex and comprehensive. Now some researchers are suggesting that the way we use and view simulations needs to be re-examined, as reported by Springer.

The researchers make multiple points in their paper about how the simulation methods being used are not always appropriate. For example, breaking something into unit cells can make macroscopic information useless, as the cell is of a finite size and what effects it may not scale up. Also some algorithms that are used within simulations can fail to produce important information concerning the simulated system, such as entropy.

Another important point the researchers make is that while newer simulation methods may have the benefit of new technology, they are not necessarily superior to older methods. Overall the researchers appear to promote a need to critically examine the use of simulations in science, to ensure the most appropriate simulation methods are used and that data from simulations are not interpreted incorrectly.

If you follow my weekly Steam Greenlight Spotlight column, you may remember my Week 3 Spotlight back in September for Day One: Garry's Incident. If you don't remember (and are too lazy to click the link), Day One is an episodic, open-world, survival FPS that tasks you with crafting your own weapons and ammunition, searching for food and shelter, and avoiding traps left behind by an ancient lost civilization. Earlier in the week, developer Wild Games Studio launched a Kickstarter to help fund the last bit of development and polish needed to finish up the first episode. Pledging $10 or more gets you a digital copy of Episode 1, either through the studio's digital store GamerZ Rebellion (DRM-free) or through Steam, when the game is greenlit. According to Wild Games Studio, Day One currently ranks 16th on Steam Greenlight, so that day should be soon.

Intel has announced its intention to hold a booth at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Yesterday, Intel announced that it aimed to show off a previously unseen mobile dual-core, dual-graphics platform that it's developing. It will also showcase a number of Android cell phones on display running its low cost Atom Z2420 processor.

This continues Intel's attempt to gain traction in the mobile processor market, a field in which it has previously lagged behind the likes of ARM and Samsung, its main competitors. Intel aims to take back some of this market this year with the advent of a number of advancements in its Atom SoC technology. The company will also showcase a number of tablets and convertibles running the Windows 8 operating system.

A major concern for a great number of people is finding the most effective means to teach others who then get good grades. Many professors are trying to encourage their students to interact online in order to share information and do better in the class. Now researchers at the University of California, San Diego have analyzed these interactions to learn what works and who works together.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, those students who were most active online were most likely to receive high grades. These high achievers also were the most likely to form strong connections and use more complex methods to share information. The researchers also discovered that these same students formed cliques and had the effect of shutting out poorer performing students. Those shut-out students then appeared to be more likely to drop out of the class.

As with many studies, it is important to remember that correlation does not imply causation, though the researchers are going to try to use this to identify students at risk of dropping out before they actually do.

CD Projekt RED, maker of The Witcher games and the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077, likes giving the best possible experiences to the PC community. Both Witcher games look impressive, with The Witcher 2 pushing the limits of what modern hardware can do. There's no doubt Cyberpunk 2077 will do the same, especially since CD Projekt just unveiled its new REDengine 3 that is powering the game. REDengine 3 is the next version of CD Projekt's in-house game engine, with the first one powering The Witcher 2 for PC and the second running the game on the 360. The third version is "created for RPGs set in vast open-worlds with improved tools for spanning truly nonlinear stories that are based on real player choices and consequences."

Adam Badowski, head of CD Projekt RED studio, had the following to say on the new engine:

If we look at RPGs nowadays we find two approaches, one which emphasizes the story but limits the game world and one that builds a vast open-world but hampers and simplifies the story. With the REDengine 3 we combine the positive aspects of both approaches for the first time, creating an open environment with a complex, multi-thread story. Together with believable characters, a captivating tale and a world where players can roam freely without loading times, we will be able to move gaming to a new level with a realistic feel and full player immersion. When working on our previous titles, I didn’t dream that we would achieve something like this. Thanks to the support of all our fans, now we have the possibility to use REDengine 3 and create something many RPG fans dream of.

CD Projekt's goal is to make RPGs comparable to "top-shelf shooters" in terms of presentation and immersion, if not better. REDengine 3 is next-gen ready and blurs the line between pre-rendered CGI and rendered graphics, so there should be almost no visual gap between the two. There are new face and body animations for a realistic range of expressions, high dynamic range rendering with 64-bit precision to guarantee "superior picture quality with more realistic and precise lighting without losses derived from reduced contrast ratio," and plenty more.

A flexible renderer provides for a variety of effects like bokeh depth of field, color grading, and lens flares, while a high performance terrain system lets multiple layers be blended together and take advantage of tessellation for the utmost detail. Animation and physics can be seamlessly mixed together, too. There's plenty more CD Projekt isn't telling us about REDengine 3, but it did say a new version of its REDkit editor will allow for pretty much anything a modder can dream of, even complex questlines.

The studio really sounds like it went above and beyond with REDengine 3, and hopefully it won't be long before Cyberpunk 2077 is in our hands to check it out in full. There's also a chance The Witcher 3 gets revealed in the next several days, since it's long been known CD Projekt has a second game in development alongside Cyberpunk 2077. In the meantime, feast your eyes on the REDengine 3 screenshot below.

Much of modern technology relies on the physics of electricity in a somewhat classical form. In the future though, quantum mechanical effects may be utilized to improve the performance of these electronic devices. Researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology, the SEMATECH consortium, and Texas State University have recently constructed a new transistor that uses one of this quantum effects: tunneling.

In classical physics, when a moving object comes to a hill, it will try to climb it, and if it cannot get over the summit, it will roll back the way it came. Quantum mechanics however gives the object a means to skip the hill altogether, as though it went through a tunnel. There are several advantages to having signals tunnel through barriers or hills, including that this can be accomplished with considerably less energy than having to go over the barrier.

What the researchers did is build the first tunneling field effect transistors that are able to operate at large enough currents to be practical replacements for modern transistors. If these new transistors were used to replace modern ones, battery life could increase by a factor of 10, thanks to the lesser energy needed for the tunneling phenomenon.

Knock-Knock is a 2D platform horror game that mostly takes place in a lone house in the middle of the woods, where you try to survive each night (roughly 7-10 minutes in real-time). The game is being developed by the Russian game studio Ice-Pick Lodge, developers of The Void and Cargo! The Quest for Gravity, as well as a game called Pathologic, which has not been released in the US, but received high praise in Russia. All the aforementioned games are very unconventional, so you can expect Knock-Knock to follow suit.

Though gameplay details are sparse on the Greenlight page, Knock-Knock's (successfully funded) Kickstarter page sheds some light (pun intended). Each night, Visitors enter your house and you must stay alive until the sun rises. While you can hide, you won't survive that way for long. Instead, you need to go from room to room, "searching for the breaches that let the creatures of the woods inside and doing your best to mend them." Each night, a variety of random items appear to aid you in your survival, but your limited five-slot inventory means you must choose wisely. As you progress in the game, you build up your house with any combination of rooms, stairs and doors, increasing your total health and safety, as well as opening up new opportunities. In addition, each Visitor has "a unique appearance, damage range, and personal characteristics."

It is unclear how long a single playthrough will take, but the game will feature multiple seasons, and due to the random nature of the items and the endless possibilities for house configurations, there should be a decent amount of replayability. In addition, the Greenlight page mentions being able to enter portals to step inside dreams, though no details are stated. According to the Kickstarter page, "[e]verything that happens in the house is a clue," and as players uncover clues and master levels, the underlying mystery will eventually be exposed.

Despite not knowing exactly how the game will play out, Knock-Knock's graphical style and creepiness really drew me in. It seems to be a game shrouded in mystery, both within the game world itself, as well as its development history (read the opening section of Kickstarter). It's a game that's so out there, that I struggled with whether to Spotlight it, as I originally promised to include games I felt would be widely appealing. In the end, it's because of its uniqueness that I decided to go with it, as the world needs more developers to really stretch their creative energies to the max and dare to be different.

We have a good start to the week with our Monday roundup. We have another review of the Kingston SSDNow 300V 120GB solid state drive, which is also the prize in the Different Kind of Contest here at OCC. A review of the ADATA DashDrive Elite HE720 500GB external drive is also in the storage section of the roundup. We have another look at the G.SKILL Trident X 8GB 2400C10 dual channel memory kit, the Logitech G600 MMO gaming mouse, the ASRock Z77 OC Formula motherboard and more today, so be sure to use the links below to read all of the reviews from our affiliates today.

The steady adoption of ITX amongst system builders has given rise to some small but powerful PC hardware, and Thermalright’s AXP-100 looks to further improve CPU thermals of your bite-sized machine. While a six-heatpipe configuration can normally be found in mammoth CPU coolers, the AXP-100 manages to pack in the same number, directing the CPU heat towards the heatspreader and fan array. The AXP-100 includes a 100mm fan, but also comes with a secondary fan mount that can accommodate even bigger fans, up to 140mm. With a 5.8cm clearance, the Thermalright AXP-100 should fit in snugly in an ITX setup. What's more, the AXP-100 supports the LGA 2011 socket, which is a pretty good indication that you'll be getting some decent overclocking headroom with this diminutive CPU cooler.

Everyone loves a good sale as it lets you get more for your money. 'Buy one, get one free,' sales are perhaps the most intriguing of sales to consumers, as the same cost gets you double what you want. Researchers at the University of California, Davis have recently found a way to get just such a 'sale' within solar cells by having one photon create two electron-hole pairs, instead of the usual one.

When a photon strikes a silicon solar cell, depending on its frequency, it may cause an electron to be ejected from its atom and enter the conducting band, leaving a positively charged hole behind. By collecting these electrons one can create an electrical current, but a conventional silicon solar cell can achieve no better than 33% efficiency. What the researchers have discovered is a means to use a special form of silicon, called silicon BC8, to eject two electrons instead of one. This double ejection is due to an effect called 'quantum confinement,' which will typically only happen with ultra violet light. The researchers simulated how BC8 behaves though and found that nanoparticles of it should have the double ejection effect when visible hits it.

Potentially a solar cell that utilizes BC8 would have a maximum efficiency of 42%, but by concentrating the light that could shoot up to 70%. Of course a means of producing silicon BC8 will be needed first, but recent research from Harvard and MIT suggest this efficiently done using laser light.

A new, smaller version of the Raspberry Pi, the 'Model A' micro PC has been released in Europe. The Linux board is the latest addition to the super-cheap developer board, and costs just $25. The major changes between this and the larger 'Model B' being the absence of an Ethernet port and a single USB port. RAM has also been reduced, from 512MB down to 256MB, identical to that of the Model B's predecessor.

From the component cuts, the UK-based Raspberry Pi Foundation has managed to cut the power consumption to 'roughly a third' of the 'Model B'. This makes the 'Model A' micro PC more suitable for low-power devices such as those running on solar or battery power. As of now, the 'Model A' micro PC is only available in Europe, however overseas customers can order the device, but will need to wait a while before receiving it.

Hewlett-Packard has announced its first entry into the expanding Chromebook market, the Pavilion Chromebook. Powered by the Internet focused Chrome OS from Google, this device offers a number of similar features to competitors in the market. The HP Chromebook is powered by an Intel Celeron CPU, 16GB of flash storage, and Wi-Fi. The main areas of difference are a mix of good and bad. A 14" screen is the largest on a Chromebook, but the 4.25 hours of battery life put it at the bottom of the pile. The Pavilion Chromebook comes with two years of 100GB Google Drive Cloud Storage and will retail for $330.

Quantum dots are sometimes referred to as 'designer molecules' because some of their properties can be precisely controlled, such as the frequencies of light they react to. While this ability could make them very useful for a myriad of studies and technologies, there are several issues with quantum dots, such as the light they emit being dim or blinking on and off. Now researchers at MIT have developed a new kind of quantum dot which actually does not suffer these disadvantages.

One potential use for quantum dots is as medical markers, where they are attached to a cell or other biological component. By shining an ultraviolet light on the sample, the dots will light up in a different color, allowing one to follow it, but because of how quickly they may be moving, if the dot blinks off or produces too broad a spectrum of light, it can be lost. By slowly growing the new quantum dots in solution, the researchers were able to produce dots that stay lit 94% of the time and have a single frequency peak, without having to make them too large to be useable. Another property of the dots is a very high 97% energy efficiency rating, which should be useful if the slow-growing method is adapted for large scale manufacture.

The researchers believe that we could see these dots being used as soon as two years from now, and those uses may not be limited to medical tests. Solid state lighting and displays could utilize these dots, but only time will tell how great their potential is.

A method to jailbreak iOS 6 devices has just been released by a team of hackers known as evad3rs. The tool, evasi0n, uses a previously unknown exploit to jailbreak all versions of iOS 6 on iPhones, iPods, and iPads. The jailbreak software works on Windows, OS X, and Linux and offers the ability to do an untethered jailbreak. This means that "the iOS device doesn't need to be plugged into a computer to re-enable the jailbreak every time the device is rebooted."

One of the challenges shared by solar and wind power is its difficulty to transport the energy they produce to where it is wanted. The areas with the most sunlight and the most wind are not always near major population centers, and even then, the power can vary, uncontrollably throughout the day. As reported by the American Society for Microbiology, the first step to using bacteria to convert the electricity to chemical energy has been taken.

Nature is filled with bacteria that can do all kinds of things, including oxidizing iron. These bacteria feed on the electricity released by iron oxidation to grow and multiply, along with carbon dioxide from the air. What researchers have successfully done is replaced the oxidation process with an equivalent voltage, causing the bacteria to thrive on an electrode.

Potentially we could see these or similar bacteria being used to pull carbon dioxide from the air and converting it into more useful compounds, such as biofuels, using solar and wind power to provide the necessary energy. That technology is still far off though, but a little closer to reality than it had been.

In what has been perhaps one of the worst kept secrets around, CD Projekt RED has officially taken the wraps off of the next entry in The Witcher series. Dubbed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Geralt of Rivia is off on a whole new adventure across an open world 30 times larger than previous games (half an hour by horseback!). The game world is even larger than that of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and there's not a loading screen in sight thanks to REDengine 3. Game Informer has the inside scoop on the new game and all the early details CD Projekt is willing to spill, though it isn't much. What we do know is that Geralt is sporting a wicked new beard as he journeys through a deeply personal story filled with political intrigue and hellacious monsters.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is due for release in 2014 for PCs and "all high-end platforms available," which more than likely means the next PlayStation and Xbox once those get revealed. If you're wondering about who Geralt is journeying with on the cover of Game Informer, well, get in line as CD Projekt isn't saying a word. The style of dress resembles Triss Merigold, though your guess is as good as mine. Keep it tuned for more details as CD Projekt unveils them, and try not to start ticking down the days till The Witcher 3 releases.

Small form factor components have been getting a bit more attention in the review world lately and today we have a couple of items for you to check out. First up is the NM70-I2 Mini-ITX motherboard from ECS that uses the NM70 Express chipset from Intel and supports the Celeron 847 processors. You can house your ATX, Micro-ATX or Mini-ITX motherboard in the Cooler Master HAF XB chassis. We also have reviews on the Seasonic Platinum-660 660W power supply, the Gigabyte Force M7 Thor and more.

In simplest terms, the Internet represents a new way for people to communicate, but it accomplishes this so differently than other communication media that scientific examination is required. Behaviors already present in society, such as bullying, friendship, and romances can take new forms online, which is why the Society for Personality and Social Psychology met recently to share the latest research results.

Potentially the most interesting of the topics discussed was online bullying, which does seem to be a different beast than what some of us may have experienced years ago. Researchers have found that instead of the outcasts of a school being targeted for bullying, it is often the popular students being harassed, and typically by friends or former friends. This former relationship allows the bully to target their attacks for maximum harm.

Another interesting correlation the researchers found concerned how what we reveal online affects our relationships. Researchers found that by disclosing more personal information online, we lessen intimacy and satisfaction with our romantic partners. This correlation was dependent on whether the information shared concerned the partner. Also the correlation was not present for friendships.

There is a fair bit more at the source link, so if you find this interesting, be sure to check it out.

Mozilla has sent out invites for a press conference at this year's Mobile World Congress later this month where it is expected to reveal the eagerly awaited Firefox OS. The OS was previously showcased at CES last month, and Mozilla is working hard to keep the tech world up-to-date with its developments. Mozilla is also planning to create two 'developer phones' for the development and testing of apps on its upcoming OS.

Firefox OS is set to be another open-source alternative to the likes of iOS and Android. Mobile operating systems have grown rapidly recently, and with the continued growth of the smartphone market, new OSes are springing up regularly. Although very little is known about Firefox OS at the moment, we expect a lot more information to become available after the press conference on February 24.

The eagerly anticipated Ouya games console is set for release in June, according to a Wall Street Journal interview with CEO Julie Uhrman. The console, originally conceived in early 2012, smashed through its target during its crowdfunding campaign on Kickstater in July last year. The device will cost $99, and will be available for purchase on a number of online stores including Amazon.com, BestBuy, GameStop, and Target.

The device will have a 'large suite' of launch titles, however it is not currently known how many will be ports of older titles. The device will launch in June in the US, however there is currently no word on an EU or worldwide release. Gamers outside the US who want to order the console should be able to order it through Kickstater as international pre-orders were permitted under the original Kickstarter.

Multiple communities have supported the development of the Internet since its inception, and not least among them is the scientific community. The ability to quickly share information with colleagues and institutions across the world is almost a necessity for some fields of science to advance, but in the future, as technology changes, the Internet will have to be reinvented. Luckily researchers are already working on that as those at the University of Innsbruck have successfully demonstrated directly transferring quantum data from one point to another, as a quantum Internet would require.

In classical mechanics, it is possible to copy the state of one thing to another, such as the data on one hard drive to another. Quantum mechanics however does not allow this, so on a quantum Internet data must be transmitted differently, which is what the researchers have accomplished. Using an ion trap, the researchers held a single calcium ion between two mirrors, and with a laser they encoded information onto the ion. With a second laser, the ion was excited to emit a single photon, which then contains the quantum information. After bouncing off the mirrors, the photon entered an optical cable to direct it to another ion trap, to encode the information to another ion.

This is the first time quantum information has been transferred like this, but very likely will not be the last. Once quantum computers are developed and institutions around the world start using them, a means to transmit data from one to another will be needed, and it may operate similarly.

Zotac is introducing a new model of mini-PC to the ZBOX nano XS series, the XS AD13. The new system features the AMD Brazios 2.0 platform with an E2-1800 APU using a RADEON HD 7340 GPU. The base model is a barebone system while a PLUS option includes 2GB of DDR3 RAM and a 64GB mSATA SSD. The ZBOX nano XS AD13 is compatible with Windows 7 and 8 as well as OpenELEC operating systems.

Arctic is a company that I have primarily known as providing cooling products, but the announcement of a new barebone HTPC system certainly changes my outlook. The MC001-XBMC is a system that was created in conjunction with OpenELEC using the latest XBMC 12 software. The system has a small form factor and is powered by a dual core Intel Atom D525, ATI Mobility Radeon 5430 GPU, and 2GB of DDR3 memory. The XBMC software allows for playback of all major audio and video formats which can be stored on an included 1TB hard drive, and a number of applications are available to use a smartphone as a remote control. The MC001-XBMC will have a special introductory price of $229, while supplies last.

Everyone has lost friends in their life. The reasons can vary greatly from a tragedy to simply growing apart, but recently you can lose a friend with the click of a button. This is an entirely different dynamic for relationships, which is why researchers at the University of Colorado Denver have studied how 'unfriending' on Facebook can affect people.

To collect the needed information, the researchers got 582 survey responses through Twitter and noticed some interesting trends, when it comes to whether 'unfriending' on Facebook translated to 'unfriending' in real life. Half of the respondents said they would not avoid someone in real life if that person unfriended them, but 40% said they would. (The other 10% were unsure.) Women were more likely to avoid whoever unfriended them, which the researchers do not have an explanation for. They did however find numerous predictors for if someone will avoid the 'unfriender,' including if the person believes the unfriending is due to an offline behavior.

While it may seem silly to study online activity such as this, there are definite consequences of unfriending someone, including making them feel excluded. Such a feeling can reduce self-esteem and one's sense of belonging, amongst other negative effects.

Computer giant Dell has announced a new deal that will see the company go private, thanks in part to a little backing from Microsoft. Founder and CEO Michael Dell and investment firm Silver Lake are set to acquire Dell for $24.4 billion, with a $2b loan from Microsoft. Michael Dell will continue serving as chairman and CEO of the company he started, although how much influence Microsoft will have is unknown. Silver Lake, on the other hand, has "significant experience in the technology sector," so the future could be very bright for Dell. Shareholders receive $13.65 per share of Dell stock from the deal, which is a 35% increase over where stocks where on January 11 before the deal was leaked. As for the deal itself, Mr. Dell first proposed it back in August 2012 to the Board of Directors, and then recused himself from the "Special Committee" overseeing negotiations.

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of Dell's 2014 fiscal year, but there shouldn't be any complications along the way.

Today's roundup contains a review on another solid state drive, this time focusing on the Intel 335 Series 240 GB. As solid state drive prices decline, it is hard to imagine not seriously considering one for your system if you haven't already made the switch. However, drives like the Western Digital 2TB drive reviewed here will continue to have a place, especially when it comes to storing large amounts of data cheaply. Neoseeker brings us a look at the AZZA Silentium 920 mid-tower chassis, a sub-$100 basic case with a pair of 120mm fans and 5 internal 3.5" drive bays. Rounding out the list today are a couple of headphone reviews and an article on the Hauppage HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition designed to make it easy to record gaming footage from your console players.

When asked to imagine a scientist at work, some people will envision a spectacled person in a lab coat behind a collection of beakers. On the same table as those beakers, some may envision several petri dishes containing all kinds of microorganisms. Now researchers at the Vienna University of Technology are looking to move past the flat petri dish by constructing 3D nanostructures for the study of cells and tissues.

Many cells are strongly affected by their surroundings, including some stem cells which will develop into different kinds of cells depending on the surface they are on. That dependence on the environment for so many cell types is why the researchers have received a grant to develop a method to easily produce nanostructures with specific properties. Their plan is to start by suspending the cells to be studied in a special liquid. This liquid will not harm the cells but can be converted to a firm polymer when exposed to the focus of a laser, so by moving a laser through the solution, the nanostructure for the cells to grow on can be constructed.

Such a nanostructure should prove useful in many ways as it will not only allow scientists to expose cells to a variety of environments, but also keep it in one similar to what it prefers. Potentially that could allow for drug testing to be done completely within a lab, instead of with living creatures.

iOS jailbreak 'evasi0n', released yesterday, has amassed 1.7 million uses in the first day of release. The jailbreak, compatible with iOS 6, and 6.1 has been used on the iPhone 5, the iPad Mini, and the iPad 4. 'evasi0n' is unique as it allows the jailbreak to write data to the iOS kernel, which has not previously been exploited.

Apple has responded to the release of 'evasi0n' through updating its online jailbreak warning page to include the hazards involved in jailbreaking. The page warns users of the instability, battery life, unreliability, and security vulnerabilities that jailbreaking can use, however owners of Apple devices appear to have ignored this warning.

When tasked with defending the world's superpower, it makes sense that the American military is constantly trying to develop and utilize new and better technologies. The Office of Naval Research has recently announced that the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Milwaukee is going to be the first of its ships to utilize a new waterjet design, to improve performance and reliability. (Littoral Combat Ships are smaller ships designed to operate near shore.)

For thrust the typical ship uses large propellers, but this technology has many disadvantages such as cavitation. When machinery rotates in water, it is possible for a pressure differential to develop that will generate air bubbles; this is cavitation. Over time these bubbles can cause parts of the metal to wear away, which means it will have to be replaced. Waterjets however are less susceptible to cavitation, which means they will have to be replaced less often. This is due to their smaller design with a nozzle that produces higher static pressure.

The specific design of waterjet to be used on the Milwaukee can move almost a half million gallons of water in a minute, which is more than modern commercial waterjets. When completed, the ship will have four of these, propelling it to speeds above 40 knots (46 mph).

J.J. Abrams is the man behind television and movie hits such as Lost, Cloverfield, and the Star Trek remake. In addition to his upcoming work on the new Star Trek and Star Wars movies, Abrams joined Gabe Newell of Valve at the 2013 DICE Summit today to discuss the potential of the two parties working together. The pair cited a new game that Abrams wants to work with Valve to make as well as the potential for a movie based on the Portal or Half-Life games. A follow-up discussion with Abrams confirmed that "we are really talking to Valve, we are going to be bringing on a writer, we have a lot of very interesting ideas."

G.Skill is adding a 32GB DDR3 kit to the Trident X line of memory, creating the world's fastest set of 32GB memory. The kit, which has model number F3-2800C11Q-32GTXD, features four 8GB sticks that make up the only 32GB kit operating at 2800MHz with CL11. The Trident X line of memory is a good match with the Z77 chipset and Ivy Bridge CPUs from Intel.

No matter how amazing a material may be, if it cannot be produced in large enough quantities, it will be useless to society. That is why researchers across the globe are working to develop ways of mass producing graphene. Now a group led by researchers at the University of Oxford has found a way to grow graphene without defects, and the method should be scalable to large sizes.

Chemical vapor deposition is one of the more traditional means of growing graphene. It involves filling a chamber with hot carbon atoms that cool and fall onto a substrate at the bottom, similar to snow falling and covering the ground. Also like snowfall, the carbon atoms can first collect in different places, and with different orientations. Eventually these graphene 'domains' will grow and bump into each other, but because the different orientations do not line up correctly, there will be defects at the seams. What the Oxford researchers have found is that the atomic structure of a copper substrate and the pressure applied while the graphene grows can be used to align the domains, and thereby remove the defects.

In theory this approach can be scaled up to produce sheets of defect-free graphene as large as desired, so long as there is a copper substrate for the atoms to land on. If graphene-based technology is ever going to reach consumers, such a means of production will be required.

We have seen a couple of reviews here lately on Seasonic power supplies and today's roundup includes a review of the Gold Series X-750 unit. Solid state drives are coming down in price as newer and faster models hit the market. The ADATA XPG SX900 128GB in the roundup has hit a price point of $0.78/GB with larger models even cheaper on a per gigabyte basis. We also get an opportunity to check out the SilverStone Precision Series PS07 case as well as a Z77 motherboard from ASRock and the Samsun Galaxy Note 2 mobile device.

Within arm's length of me are multiple examples of reflective displays that conserve power by operating without a backlight. One of the displays is actually a writing tablet that utilizes liquid crystals while the others are eink readers that move small particles to create images. While largely the technologies are different, both technologies monochromatic, but researchers at the University of Michigan are looking to change that.

Iridescence is a phenomenon that is not uncommon in Nature, as it is what gives peacock feathers' their color, amongst other materials. The various colors of a peacock feather are created by special grooves that only reflect certain colors of light, but the angle you view the grooves at affects the color you see. The researchers have successfully replicated the iridescent effect without that angle dependency by etching nanoscale cavities into a surface. When light falls on these cavities, a specific frequency is trapped, so it is missing from what is reflected back to your eyes. (The etching holds the negative of the image you see.)

So far the researchers have only produced static images this way, but they hope to create moving images this way soon. When that is achieved, it will be interesting to see what uses the technology will have, as displays and counterfeit-protection already come to mind.

Among the reasons solid state drives are replacing hard disk drives is the lack of moving components, which means there are no components to mechanically wear out. Of course, SSDs suffer a different kind of wear, as do many other technologies such as the nanotechnology of the future. Unlike some forms of wear HDDs and SSDs undergo, the wear nanotechnology suffers is not well understood, but researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have recently uncovered some of its secrets.

At the macroscale there are two main processes that dominate mechanical wear; plastic deformation and fracture deformation. Plastic deformation involves a material changing shape without breaking, and if the material breaks, that is a fracture deformation. At the nanoscale, where atoms press and rub against each other, researchers had theorized a different kind of deformation takes place, and now the University of Pennsylvania has caught it in action. By running a silicon-tipped atomic force microscope over a piece of diamond within an electron microscope, it has been confirmed that atoms will actually transfer from one material to another.

This process of atomic attrition is actually related to well-established science, which is useful for discovering the mathematics that governs the wearing process. Understanding the process better should enable more resilient nano-devices to be built in the future, which will increase both functionality and decrease cost.

Our roundup today contains a review of the Amazon Kindle Fire HD tablet/reader, one of the products from Amazon that were popular gift items this past holiday season. Also in the list of reviews we picked up today are the FSP Raider 550w power supply and a look at the Assassin's Creed III: Deluxe game.

Cancer, in all its forms, can be a very difficult disease to treat as it is our bodies' own cells that have mutated to form the tumors and are in close proximity to healthy cells. This can make surgery impossible but chemotherapy will kill more than just the cancer cells, which is why researchers are working to find means to selectively target cancer cells and preserve their healthy neighbors. Now researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have developed a means to deliver a protein to kill cancer cells, without hurting healthy cells.

The researchers have created shells roughly 100 nm wide out of a water-soluble polymer that are able to enter a cell carrying the protein apoptin. Once within the cell, the polymer degrades and releases the protein which triggers the cancer cell to self-destruct. Healthy cells however are not affected by apoptin, so if the polymer shell were absorbed by the wrong cell, no harm would come to it. An important characteristic of the polymer shell is that it can be produced under mild conditions, so as not to damage the protein it contains.

The researchers have tested this delivery method on human breast cancer cells within lab mice, and resulted in a significant reduction of tumor growth. The researchers are still working on this design though, trying to make it better at targeting cancer cells and survive long in the blood stream.

The Chaser A31 case is the newest mid tower offering from Thermaltake. The case is available in colors of black, white, and blue and features a windowed side panel. Up to five 120mm case fans can be installed and there is room for CPU coolers up to 160mm in height and GPUs up to 410mm in length. A removable hard drive cage allows for up to six 3.5" or 2.5" drives and the case also has three 5.25" bays. The front panel features two USB 3.0 and audio connectors, and a bottom mounted PSU rounds out this case.

In a move that comes as no surprise, Activision has confirmed that a new Call of Duty game will be released in the fourth quarter of this year, just in time for the holiday shopping season. Activision didn't confirm what the title of the game will be, but it is expected to be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. Actor Bill Murray, who did voice work for Modern Warfare 3, was reported to have said, "I'm doing work on a sequel to Modern Warfare 3, it carries straight on and I only ever appear in the Modern Warfare games," which further points to the new game being Modern Warfare 4.

If you go far enough into the past you will find that people believed Earth was the only planet capable of supporting life. Now that assumption is in doubt as we know there are likely billions of planets orbiting millions of stars, and there is a chance some of them orbit in the habitable zone and look like Earth. Now researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have determined that such a planet may be as near as 13 light years away.

The researchers arrived at this figure after reexamining data from the Kepler Space Telescope, which hunts for planets. Their analysis determined that approximately 60% of red dwarf stars should have a planet smaller than Neptune orbiting them. Most of these planets are likely too large and too far from the star to support life, but some 6% should be approximately the size of Earth and in the star's habitable zone. Red dwarfs are the most common kind of star and roughly 75% of the stars near us are red dwarfs, so even at just 6%, there is a good chance the nearest Earth-like planet is just 13 light years away.

Of course this planet would be very different from our own as it will be orbiting the smaller and cooler star much more closely, which means they have a very short year. The researchers did identify three red-dwarf systems that are likely to have a planet in the habitable zone, and the longest year amongst them was just 56 days.

Last October, Amazon Kindle owners received some good news in that some companies would be issuing refunds for price-adjusted eBooks. Several publishers and Apple were involved in an alleged price fixing scheme to try and combat Amazon's dominance, but last October three publishers settled. Penguin Books settled in December, which left just Macmillan and Apple as the final two. Now, however, it's just Apple as Macmillan has reached a settlement agreement with the DOJ. As part of the agreement, Macmillan is prohibited from entering into any new discounting agreements on eBooks, and report to the DOJ on any eBook opportunities and communcation with its rivals. The DOJ expects many Macmillan titles to drop in price, though no word was made on whether it or Penguin would issue refunds like HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette.

Macmillan's CEO, John Sargent, is not too happy about the settlement, as he believes it's harmful to the entire industry and his company will have a "pricing disadvantage for two years." He also states his company did nothing wrong with the pricing, even if the DOJ and others disagree. As for Apple, well, there's a court date coming up this June to try and settle with the last holdout.

Adobe has today issued an emergency update to patch two security holes in its Adobe Flash Player software. Links to sites hosting the malicious code are embedded in phishing e-mails aimed at the aerospace and manufacturing industry, and also against Mac OS X users.

The malware infects computers with a trojan virus in a number of executable files and a number of DDLs that allows virus distributors to remotely access the computer. Flash versions affected include Adobe Flash Player 11.5 on Windows and Mac OS X, and 11.2 on Linux. The security flaw also affects certain preinstalled platforms such as Flash in IE10 and Chrome, as well as Flash Player 11.1 on Android, although these will be automatically updated in routine software updates.

The IBM Watson Supercomputer rose to fame during a victory over the two most successful Jeopardy players in history. The performance of Watson has been increased by 240% since that appearance and its computing muscle is now being flexed for a different purpose, fighting cancer. Researchers at Sloan-Kettering have been using Watson to compile their research and analyze it for patterns that could help in the fight against the disease. The computer uses a cloud application owned by WellPoint which will be sold to others that wish to use it. Through the app, a patients medical records are compared against the results stored in the Watson database to make recommendations for treatment based on order of effectiveness and insurance coverage.

This Tuesday will see Microsoft release patches for 57 bugs for its software. This comes close to the record 64 bugs fixed on a Patch Tuesday in April 2011. The 12 security updates will address issues in Internet Explorer, Office, and several versions of the Windows OS. Five of the 12 have been deemed critical by Microsoft, while the remaining seven are classified as important. Be sure to grab the updates on Tuesday to keep your system safe if you use any of the affected software.

Homesick is a first-person adventure game set within an abandoned building. You're a caretaker of sorts, but who you are and why are a mystery, unlocked as you play. In addition to exploring the building and solving puzzles to unlock new areas of the building, when you sleep, you're plagued by nightmares. A look at the trailers portray a game that's both serene in one moment and frightening and frantic the next.

Homesick is inspired by games like Monkey Island, The Dig, and Myst. Developer Lucky Pause not only promises puzzles that "are hard, yet fair and sensible," but also multiple ways to solve puzzles and optional side puzzles that expand the story even more. The gameplay differs in the day time world and nightmare world, while solving puzzles in one world affects the other. You'll even acquire new abilities along the way to unlock puzzles, though details are sparse.

Though it would be nice to know more about the gameplay, what really stands out is the 3D world Lucky Pause has created. For those that debate whether games can be considered art need look no further. The building you explore may be abandoned, but the detailed decor brings it to life. In addition to the art, the game also features an original soundtrack by an artist named Joy Autumn.

If you're interested in Homesick, aside from simply voting Yes on Greenlight, roughly eight days remain on its already successfully funded Kickstarter campaign. In fact, two of the stretch goals have already been reached - more puzzles and story, including a roof level, as well as Oculus Rift support. If the last stretch goal of $22,000 is reached, a prequel game will be developed that will be unlocked after beating the main game.

Today's roundup includes a pair of gaming mice, one newly released and one that has been out a while. The newer of the two is the GX-Gaming Gila from Genius. The second device is the Cooler Master CM Storm Sentinel Advance II gaming mouse. We have another pair of reviews covering computer cases in the roundup with the first being the Corsair 500R Mid-Tower Case which is a member of the Carbide series from Corsair. The second is on the NZXT Phantom 820 full-tower chassis for those wanting more room for components.

One of the more important scientific discoveries of the 19th century was the link between electricity and magnetism. Without this understanding electric motors and generators could not be explained and neither could light, an electromagnetic phenomenon. Now researchers at Argonne National Laboratory are examining materials that strongly couple electricity and magnetism for their possible use for computer memories.

While electricity and magnetism are linked, the electric properties of a material do not necessarily affect the material's magnetic properties, but that is not the case for 'magnetoelectrics.' The materials within this special class actually have their electric and magnetic properties coupled such that changing one property changes the other. The researchers took one of these materials, europium-titanium oxide (EuTiO3) and compressed its atomic structure. When the researchers applied a voltage to the material, the titanium atom shifted which electrically polarized the material and changed its magnetic order.

While there is still a great deal of work to be done first, magnetoelectric research could lead to advanced kinds of computer memory which combine the best of both electric and magnetic memories. Also we could see the materials being used to create non-binary memories that reach beyond the 0s and 1s of modern electronics.

AMD has thrown itself into reverse, as over the weekend some noise was made that the company wouldn't release its Radeon HD 8000 series cards until the end of this year or beginning of next. Now, however, AMD has issued a statement it'll "certainly" have new GPUs this year with more information arriving later this week. That is certainly good news for everyone wanting to see what the HD 8000 series brings, especially if they've been holding out as long as possible for their next upgrade. The reason AMD is wanting to clarify things later this week is because the report over the weekend was taken out of context, not to mention translation. If you're so inclined you can check out the report here, though hopefully your Japanese is clearer than the Google Translate version.

When AMD reveals information on the HD 8000 series later this week, even if it's just an expected launch date, you can be sure to check it out here.